Katy Saulpaugh’s Survival Guide for Agile Reorgs and Culture Change

Katy Saulpaugh started out in change management before becoming an Agile coach. Today she applies her previous knowledge and experience to the field of Agile transformations. In her Business Agility 2017 talk “Agile Reorgs: A Survival Guide”, she outlines how to approach reorgs for Agile teams and minimize the pain using change management techniques.

Change management offers much to the Agile industry and vice versa, so Katy finds her work helps many organizations bridge the gap between the two. Here she offers best practices and insights for communication around change initiatives like Agile transformation, including:- Communicate more often because silence only reinforces fear.- Create and maintain feedback loops with frequent bite-sized communication chunks.- Create alignment around why transform and how Agile is a means to that end.- Get everyone involved in the conversation.- Avoid sharing scary change through email; in person is best.

Katy also shares a powerful change management tool: the change network. This is a group of highly engaged people who are not on the management team, and yet they’re influential. Katy says, “If you don’t engage them, they may leave the organization. If they’re not part of what you’re trying to do, they can derail things. At the same time, they’re your greatest assets.” But how do you identify them? “Communities of practice [which includes] people who have self-selected and willing to learn more and spend time to learn more.”

SolutionsIQ’s Josh Fruit hosts at Business Agility 2017 in New York City.